"No!"
My voice trembled with fury.
"If she's so pitiful, that's between her parents and whoever hurt her! She could have said no! She could have called the cops! Why should I be the one to sacrifice my marriage and my happiness?"
"Unless..."
A sob crept into my voice.
"Unless none of it ever happened. Unless you two were already together, and that's why—"
The slap came before I could finish.
Benjamin stood with his hand raised, face twisted in rage. "Don't you dare talk about her like that! I already told you—Elise and I are only getting married on paper! Why do you insist on twisting everything into something ugly?"
Our shouting drew a crowd. Neighbors from upstairs and downstairs poked their heads out, gathering on the landing.
Someone turned to Elise and Benjamin. "Elise, who is this? What's her relationship with your husband?"
Elise stammered, her voice small. "She's his... ex..."
The look on her face said everything she didn't—wounded, long-suffering, victimized.
Understanding dawned on the neighbors' faces. They turned to me with open disgust, and one of them actually shoved me.
"They're about to get married! You're still chasing after someone else's husband? That makes you the other woman! You look decent enough—have some shame!"
"Exactly! Someone get a photo of her! Post it online!"
I laughed—a sharp, bitter sound—and slammed my suitcase down in front of them.
"Benjamin, why don't you tell them who the real other woman is?"
The suitcase popped open on impact. But Elise let out a shriek and crouched down.
Benjamin looked at her leg—at a red, swollen mark no bigger than a fingernail.
His expression changed instantly.
"Maud! When will you stop? Elise and I already have our marriage certificate! So tell me—who's the other woman here?"
I stared at him, stunned, and let out a hollow laugh. "Benjamin. This is what you call a fake marriage? You got the certificate and it's still fake?"
He realized his slip the moment the words left his mouth. Guilt flickered across his face before he deflected.
"All this over some worthless bracelet—you come here and assault people!"
"Maud, I never knew you could be this heartless. This selfish. This cold-blooded!"
My eyes went wide as Benjamin stormed back into the apartment. When he came out, he was holding the bracelet I treasured more than anything in the world.
He hurled it at the ground.
"You want your bracelet so bad? Take your piece of junk and get out!"
"No!" I screamed and lunged for it, hands outstretched, but I wasn't fast enough.
I watched it shatter against the floor, pieces scattering like broken teeth.
My head snapped up. I fixed him with a stare full of something he had never seen from me before.
Not love. Not devotion. Not patience.
Hatred.
Even through his rage, it shook him. For one brief second, panic crossed his face.
But the next second, Elise whimpered through her tears. "Professor Delgado, my leg hurts so much. Do you think it's broken?"
Benjamin snapped back to attention. He scooped her up and strode past me toward the stairs.
"Don't be scared. I'm taking you to the hospital."
He moved fast and hard, and as he passed, he knocked straight into me where I crouched on the floor.
I tumbled down the steep staircase and hit the landing below with a sickening thud.
People gasped. I called out, my voice thin and weak.
Benjamin never looked back.
Before my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was Elise resting her head against his shoulder, looking right at me.
Smiling.
In that moment, something inside my chest cracked open—clean and sharp, like porcelain breaking.
There was a time when Benjamin had protected me the way he now protected Elise.
When those trust-fund boys followed me, catcalling and closing in, and I was shaking with fear—he had charged out and planted himself between us. He told them to back off without flinching.
Then he grabbed my wrist and pulled me through their circle, and we ran.
